Artists & Network
Network connector
Projects index
Members directory
FUTURES FOUNDATION
About
Curatorial services
Residency program
Contact
Events
Shop
login
Log out
Log in
Need help?
Dashboard
News & socials
Newsroom
Stories
Instagram
LinkedIn
Edit profile
The

Artist

InstagramLinkedInWebsiteE-mail

/

Photographer

/

Visual Artist

Catherine

Nominated in
2024
By
FOMU
Lives and Works in
Brussels
Catherine Lemblé is a Belgian photographer based in Brussels. She received her MA in photography from Luca School of Arts Brussels. Her work has been exhibited at FOMU (Antwerp), De Brakke Grond (Amsterdam), Contretype (Brussels), Musée de la Photographie (Charleroi) and Helsinki Photo Festival, amongst others. She was selected for .tiff (FOMU, Antwerp) and FUTURES (European Photography Platform) in 2024. Her photographs have been featured in publications such as Stern, De Standaard, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Quarterly. She self-published her first book, Cabin Fever, in 2019. Her ana­log pictures examine the ever-chang­ing rela­tion­ship between man and the natural world. She is currently working on her second photo book, Only Barely Still. The project challenges conventional ideas about the Arctic and highlights the underrepresented presence of women in Svalbard. It explores the relationship between women, nature, and the role language plays in shaping our perception of our environment.
Projects

Only Barely Still

The Arctic was never considered a proper place for women. Throughout history, women have been deemed unfit to deal with the challenges of an autonomous life in the public realm, let alone with the dangers of the isolated wilderness. Non-indigenous people to the Arctic have long conceptualised the polar region as a barren, inhospitable landscape where only the toughest of men could survive. This frame of mind is also reflected in the body of stories and literature set in the circumpolar region: women are mostly absent, and if they do happen to make an appearance, they are classified as man’s inferior companion, as an exception or as just not in their right mind, or both. At the same time the Arctic has traditionally been gendered as feminine in the Western world. Initially, it was regarded a region to be conquered and penetrated; as male territory that has to be brought into submission. Whereas this view has shifted in post-colonial times, the Arctic is still conceived of as feminine and is now collectively imagined as a pure, pristine place in need of our protection. A barren, virgin land in distress. By imposing on it a passive identity as an object of desire, this one-sided and simplified view is not aligned with reality. The project Only Barely Still aims to propose a different narrative of the Arctic and its collective imaginary. By standing on the axis of two misconceptions – about the Arctic on one hand, and the women in it on the other – it wants to respectfully capture their synergy. 

‍

Show full project
Catherine
was nominated by
FOMU
in
2024
Show all projects
Each year every member of the FUTURES European Photography Platform nominates a set of artists and projects to become part of the FUTURES network.

This years selected artists are Romain Cavallin, Lina Wielant and Elise Dervichian, Romane Iskaria, Ksenia Kuleshova, Catherine Lemblé, Nathan Mbouebe, Angyvir Padilla, Marcel Top, Marens van Leunen and Laure Winants.

Related artists
More artists that you might
like to explore
All artists
/
Photographer
/
Visual Artist
/
Writer
Clare
Clare Lyons (b.1993) is an artist and photographer working between Belfast and Dublin. Considering the photograph as an object is integral to Clare’s practice. Her work often employs methods borrowed from sculpture and printmaking to draw attention to this, blurring the lines of what photography is or can be. Clare’s practice has been largely autobiographical, focusing on deeply personal themes and stories of healing and catharsis in the face of trauma and mental illness. Recent works represent a transitory phase for Clare as her practice shifts and changes, no longer confined to being the subject of her own work. Clare was one of five Irish Talents selected by PhotoIreland for the FUTURES European Photography Platform in 2021, and in 2022 represented Ireland at 'Visage(s) d'Europe' curated by Collectif Fetart in Paris. Clare presented her debut solo exhibition 'To Jack' at The Limerick Museum in October 2024.
/
Visual Artist
/
Researcher
/
Writer
Milena Soporowska
Milena Soporowska is a visual artist based in Poland. Her work explores, among other things, the intertwining of everyday life with magic and the occult, questioning the concept of home as a safe, familiar haven. She is interested in the combination of alternative medicine and psychoanalysis, and the overlap between Christianity, esotericism and folk spirituality.She graduated in Art History, presenting her master's thesis on the influence of spiritualistic and mediumistic photography on art in the light of Freud's category of unheimlich. She also studied photography, museology and psychotronics. Moreover, Milena is a graduate of the Sputnik Photos mentoring programme.Read more
/
Visual Artist
/
Researcher
Marcel Top
Top researches the topics of mass surveillance, privacy, data collection.In his practice, he layers a traditional approach to documentary research with a more experimental use of new technologies (such as facial recognition, movement analysis, and deepfakes). The artist uses these technologies to visualise and examine scenarios in which people can protect themselves and their rights by gaining knowledge and reclaiming control of surveillance tools.  ​ Top’s projects addressing human rights, police misconduct and facial recognition during protests aim to contrast the abstract nature of the algorithmic mechanisms behind mass surveillance, by providing a concrete visualisation of the phenomenon and confronting the public with the extensive amount of surveillance societies are subjected to and the ethical risks deriving, finally offering theoretical solutions.
/
Photographer
Sara Rman
Sara Rman (1992, Ljubljana) is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of photography and craftsmanship. Her work explores identity, freedom, and raw aesthetics, with a strong focus on socio-cultural marginality, self-reflection, and social critique. Fascinated by boundaries, she seeks to reach, transcend, and blend them through a holistic and process-driven approach. She avoids a formalistic view of photography, instead questioning its indexical nature and alternative functions beyond image-making. Her works are often interactive and installation-oriented, shaped by themes of meaning, absurdity, paradox, memory, and hallucination. By integrating multiple media, she challenges conventions and embraces experimentation, making the process itself central to her artistic expression.
/
Photographer
/
Visual Artist
/
Film Director
Tony Dočekal
Tony Dočekal (1992, Amsterdam) is a photographer and visual artist whose work focuses on identity, belonging, and the shared human condition. Her practice is shaped by encounters with individuals and communities on the road, with a particular interest in the resilience and adaptability of people living on society’s margins. Her first monograph, The Color of Money and Trees, explores the tension between material success and deeper fulfillment, asking if true prosperity lies in community and self-awareness rather than wealth and possessions. The series includes Chad on Skid Row, which won the Zilveren Camera Portrait Award in 2021, and Lyric at El Pais, a portrait of a young girl living off the grid in Arizona. The work navigates the balance between societal expectations and individual freedom. Tony’s debut short film, Pearls on Credit, reflects on how personal identity is shaped by broader economic systems and societal expectations. Shown alongside an installation of The Color of Money and Trees at Biennale Images Vevey, it deepens Tony’s exploration of the pressures individuals face in navigating these structures. Tony holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from ArtEZ University of the Arts and has received recognition, including the Olympus Young Talent Award and De Burgemeester de Bruinprijs.
/
Photographer
Elliott Verdier
Influenced from an early age by the culture of photojournalism, Elliott Verdier soon began to question his position as a witness and the subjectivity of his gaze. His work is naturally far removed from current events and favours the slowness of the large format camera, exploring the shadows of our world in search of what is invisible but universal: the memory of present and past lives, and the path it determines for us. His photography emanates a melancholy expectation, a suspended time, a silence that gives way to our existential questioning. Through a delicate aesthetic, it is no longer a question of looking solely through the prism of our wounds, but of seeing above all the grace that emerges from our struggles, and the constant resilience that overcomes our frailties. Elliott Verdier was born in Paris (France) in 1992 and graduated from the Écoles de Condé in 2015.
/
Photographer
/
Researcher
/
Photo Editor
Andrea Camiolo
Andrea Camiolo (Leonforte, 1998) is an Italian photographer and editor, currently a PhD candidate in "Science for Artistic Production and Heritage" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Catania. In 2022 he was selected as one of the finalists of Paris Photo Carte Blanche, won the Comisso Prize and the Best Portfolio Prize at the Ragusa Foto Festival.
 In 2023 he was selected as one of the finalists for the Luigi Ghirri Prize/Young Italian Photography #10, he was a finalist for the Terna Prize and lastly one of the winners of the ‘Italy is a Desire’ call for new works promoted by Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea (DGCC) of the Ministry of Culture. 
Andrea has exhibited his projects in several group exhibitions at various institutions, including: MUFOCO Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea; Palazzo Binelli, Carrara; Casa Testori, Milan; MIA Photo Fair, Milan; Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia; CAMERA Centro Italiano per la Fotografia, Turin; Palazzo Cosentini, Ragusa; Photo Open Up, Padua; Palazzo Giacomelli, Treviso; Verzasca Foto Festival. His works have been acquired in the collection of MUFOCO - Museo Fotografia Contemporanea in Cinisello Balsamo and in private collections. He is co-founder of DORSOPRESS, a small independent publishing house focused in contemporary photography.
/
Photographer
/
Visual Artist
/
Researcher
Viacheslav Poliakov
Viacheslav Poliakov is a visual artist, photographer, graphic designer. He was born in 1986 in Kherson, Ukraine. Obtained a master’s degree in art education from Kherson State University. Now based in Lviv, Ukraine. His art practice exists on the intersection of documentary photography and design. He's interested in objects and spaces made by people, the historic background behind the urban landscape. Viacheslav is a finalist of Foam Talents, Vienna Photobook Festival, Circulations, Krakow Photomonth Showoff, Fotofestival Lodz Grand Prix, Prix Levallois. His works were published in the Foam Magazine, The British Journal of Photography, GUP magazine, Lensculture, The Washington Post.
/
Photographer
/
Visual Artist
Peter Pflügler
Peter Pflügler (b. 1987) is an Austrian visual storyteller based in the Netherlands. He holds a BA in Photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. Pflügler’s work centres on the dynamics of secrets, intergenerational trauma and silence. With the help of photography, video and text, he aims to resurrect the unseen, the unknown and the hidden. His Now is not the right time project has been shown at numerous festivals and exhibitions throughout Europe, whilst the dummy was nominated for several international prizes, including the Kassel Dummy Award.Website: peterpflugler.com
/
Visual Artist
Benjamin Li
Benjamin Li is a conceptual artist based in Rotterdam. His work pushes on questions of identity, representation, displacement, everyday life, foodways and a sense of home. He currently approaches these questions centrally through an exploration of the Chinese-Indonesian restaurant.

Since 2014, Benjamin has visited over 1.200 Chinese-Indonesian restaurants across the Netherlands in an endeavour to build an archive of this restaurant. During these visits he has collected menus, pieces of tableware and written memories of his encounters. Importantly, he has also taken photographs of over 250 unique Chinese-Indonesian dishes at these restaurants. Throughout the years Benjamin also traced back and collected many sugar packs, postcards, beer glasses and other objects all linked to (defunct) Chinese-Indonesian restaurants.

Benjamin finds beauty in the Chinese-Indonesian restaurant, but for him it is also a way to come to understand his Chinese roots and family history. Many of his family members, including his parents, have worked in the restaurants as way to survive and integrate into Dutch society. With his work Benjamin tries to honour the restaurant, where others at times mock it. Today he sees the significance of his work in straddling the tension between bringing out the absurdity of certain stereotypes and fostering a reappraisal of the beauty and heritage of the Chinese-Indonesian restaurant.
Related professionals
Other professionals that might be interesting
All professionals
Angel Luis Gonzalez Fernandez
Ángel Luis González Fernández is a designer, artist, and curator supporting engaging visual arts practices, winner of Business to Arts David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards 2011. His work manifests through PhotoIreland, which he founded in 2010 to stimulate a critical dialogue on Photography. He devises curatorial projects placing conversations in the public realm around visual culture, critical thinking. These include events (PhotoIreland Festival, Halftone Print Fair, arts residency How to Flatten a Mountain, and New Irish Works), a cultural hub (The Library Project: Ireland’s Art bookshop, host to a unique resource library of photobooks and a productive arts programme), publishing projects that distribute inexpensive access to local practices, research projects (Critical Academy: examining contemporary art practices). He works collaboratively with a growing network of organisations, noticeably through ambitious Creative Europe partnerships. During the Summer 2020 lockdown he launched the critical publication OVER Journal, now distributed globally. He received the Arts Council of Ireland’s Visual Arts Bursary to deepen research on the broad historical and specific artistic context of Photography in Ireland, to curate an ambitious survey exhibition in PhotoIreland Festival 2022 and to publish a series of publications on the matter. He regularly contributes to publications such as the forthcoming The Routledge Companion to Global Photographies, edited by Lucy Soutter, Duncan Wooldridge. See some of his Graphic and Web Design work in the 100 Design Archive.
Iveta Gabalina
Iveta Gabaliņa (1979) is a curator, artist and educator. She has studied photography at the studio of Andrejs Grants, at Bournemouth Art Institute, and in the MA programme at Alto University in Helsinki. Her work has been exhibited in Latvia and internationally, including at C/O (Berlin, Germany), GESTE (Paris), and Williams Tower Gallery (Houston, USA). Gabaliņa has participated in photography festivals in Singapore, Hanover, and elsewhere. Her work is included in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Geste Paris, and the Deutsche Börse Art Collection. Since 2008 she has been part of ISSP team, responsible for numerous educational and curatorial projects. In 2018 she founded ISSP Gallery - an exhibition space dedicated to contemporary photography.
Sebastian Vaida
I’ve always loved photography, even if it sounds like a cliche. The first photos I took, I did without knowing how to do that, without paying any attention to framing, subject or composition. After a while, I began to understand what is happening in the space between me as a photographer and the subject I was photographing. And many years later, I also understood why I love to photograph. To communicate. A message, a concept, an emotion.